Gross merchandise volume refers to the total sales dollar value for merchandise sold through a particular marketplace over a certain time frame. It is calculated by the sale price charged to the customer multiplied by the number of items sold.

Detail of the financial report, BusinessDay received showed that Jumia’s GMV rose 64.5 percent to 197.9 MEUR (+113% in constant currency) in the fourth quarter of 2017, compared with 120.2 MEUR in fourth quarter 2016. The company’s marketplace platforms saw an increase in amount of orders from customers with a YoY growth of +94 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017.

“This growth is demonstrating the robust momentum in our core businesses and markets, and the increased adoption of online services by African consumers,” Jeremy Hodara, co-CEO of Jumia, “We are also seeing good results from our strategy to further develop our logistics platform and our payment platform. Our customers continue experience and the tremendous convenience of being able to shop online.”

Visitors from across Africa to the Jumia platforms also hit 550 million in 2017 while number of products available on the platform grew from 50,000 in 2012 to over 5 million in 2017.

The company’s Black Friday campaign recorded more than 100 million visits, marking a new milestone across all topline drivers.

Other highlights for the financial year include launching JumiaPay, to facilitate between merchants and consumers and tailor its solutions to specific local needs and requirements.

It also unveiled Jumia One, a consumer-facing payment mobile application, enabling customers to easily access digital services such as airtime and data, TV, utilities. The app is constantly adding features to integrate more online and financial solutions to help consumers save time and money and access a large set of different services from one place.

“Over 8 million packages were handled through the Jumia logistic platform, a unique achievement,” the statement noted.